Dispatches from the Kalamazoo Wings: February 15

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – February began as a hard-fought battle for the Wings, and it’s one on which they’re looking to fall on the right side. As the points race in the standings gets tighter, the Wings are pulling ahead of the pack. But with everyone in the Central fighting for those points, the third place spot is still theirs to lose.

The Wings opened the month against the last place Mountain Division team, the Rapid City Rush. The Rush are one of six teams that have less than 20 wins on the season, with only 18 wins so far. Though it should have been an open-and-shut affair, the Wings were held at bay by the Rush’s defence, stopping all but two of the Wings’ 37 shots on goal. Danny Moynihan opened the scoring, and Eric Kattelus later gave the Wings a 2-1 lead that would become the game winner in an usually low-scoring game.

The very next night, they played in Moline, Illinois against another seventh-place team, the Quad City Mallards. The Wings had only lost once to the Mallards in their four previous meeting this season, in a tight 5-4 game on January 20. This meeting was a blowout loss for the Wings, where Michael Garteig allowed six goals on 30 shots. Despite 43 shots of their own, the Wings were only able to pull out to goals – a lucky bounce from Kattelus and a redirect of a shot from Anton Cederholm by J.T. Stenglein.

After four days off, the Wings flipped the script, scoring a season-high nine goals against the Tulsa Oilers in their first and only matchup this season. After Tulsa got on the board first, Kalamazoo scored five unanswered goals in twelve and a half minutes of the first period. They added five more goals in the second, alongside one from the Oilers. Though the Oilers made an admirable four-goal push in the third, they couldn’t match Kalamazoo’s nine. Though they allowed four goals in the third period, the Wings were up 9-2 in their first game of what would be four games over five days, including a trip to Brampton.

Forward Josh Pitt led the charge with four points (two goals, two assists) on the night. Aaron Irving had his first multi-goal game. He, along with Sean O’Rourke and Danny Moynihan, finished the night with three points. Jimmy Mullin and Justin Taylor both had two points. In total, eleven different Wings players ended up on the score sheet.

Before they made their way to Brampton, Justin Taylor was signed to a PTO with the Utica Comets of the AHL. The 29-year-old forward is on pace for his career-best offensive production. His 25 goals on the season so far rank him third in the league, and his 43 points are fifth. He served as the team’s captain while Ben Wilson served a 20-game suspension to start the year. This would be Taylor’s first time playing in the AHL since the 2010-11 season, where he played with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Without Taylor and Tyler Heinonen, there’s an opportunity for other players to step up. Since returning from the Comets, Danny Moynihan has looked to make an impact with the Wings. “I just gotta play my game, y’know? What I do best, I gotta bring that every single night. Doesn’t matter where I am, if I’m up there or down here, I just gotta play the same way every single time. I’m just playing my game.”

The Wings still faced a tough challenge without two major pieces of their offence. The team found a way to rally for back-to-back victories against the Brampton Beast and the Indy Fuel. Anton Cederholm stayed hot with two goals against Brampton and Moynihan notched two of his own against the Fuel.

The final game of this four-game stretch wouldn’t be so lucky.

The second time they faced off against the Fuel, the Wings dominated large portions of play, but controversial penalties and missed calls added to the aggravation felt by an already tired team. The Wings played nearly the entire game trailing, but unlike the night before, weren’t able to make a successful comeback bid.

“It’s frustrating from a player’s standpoint sometimes, not getting rewarded for working hard and maybe drawing one when some nights it would be a penalty, but tonight is wasn’t. That’s the way it goes sometimes in this league,” said forward Lane Scheidl. “It is what it is.”

“It’s tough when you get down early,” added Moynihan. “Last night, we came back, and we ended up pulling it off, but it doesn’t always end up going that way. I thought we competed pretty hard towards the end of the game, but it’s hard to come back.

“It’s not gonna happen every single night.”

The players acknowledge that exhaustion is a factor, but it also comes with the territory of this league and even rookie defenseman Aaron Irving won’t lean into that crutch. “Four in five nights is definitely tough on the body, especially with travel. But there’s no excuse for that, being tired at the end of the game like that. We worked hard, and we’re feeling it right now.”

Scheidl echoed that sentiment. “It’s a grind. Four games in five nights. We gotta find a way to make things work even though we’re tired.”

Before their annual pink ice game on Valentine’s Day, Tyler Heinonen returned to the Wings after being released from a PTO with the San Jose Barracuda. Tyler Biggs also returned to the lineup. It wasn’t enough to give Quad City any payback, and the Wings fell short 5-3.

These tough battles against teams near the bottom of the standings are hardly a surprise in a league where things are constantly in flux. Even after loses, this team knows the fight never ends.

“Any team can win any night,” said Scheidl. “The guys know that. We’ve got to show up.”